Little House in the Big Desert: June 2013

Having done the shibori method which reveals little bubble-like rings on diapers, I had the idea that it would be cool to have a burbly line of them running down the center of a wrap. Once I had thought of that, I was reminded of a peculiar phenomenon that happens when you're rowing an 8 and your boat is "set". Even through the creaking of the seats, groaning of the oarlocks, and murmur of the coxswain, you can hear a line of bubbles passing right along the center of the hull. It's magical. The boat I most often rowed in was called Dawn Treader. There was one time we were rowing along and I and my seatmate were just resting our oars on the water to provide balance during a drill. I looked down into the water right as we were passing where Barton Creek pours out onto Town Lake, and true to its namesake the Dawn Treader was passing over the most amazing views, the colors were so spectacular it could have been a tropical ocean, rather than a toxic city lake. What if I could recreate that feeling on a wrap? I had to try.

this is not a good example of "set", the weather sucks, and it's sloppy bladework, but this is my DT in a race

First I chopped, hemmed, washed the linen. Then I took a spool of that synthetic twine (nylon? polyester? I'm not sure) ans tied in about a gazillion little tufts. This is where some people tie around rocks or marbles, but I like tufts. I wrapped the string around the neck of each tuft 2-4 times, and then secured it with a half hitch before moving on to the next tuft. All the way down the fabric, with one long piece of string, theoretically so it is easier to untie at the end of the dye process. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. I recommend wrapping your fingers in band aids or tape as soon as you notice hot spots forming.


tied

After I had gotten all the tying done, I used clear Elmer's glue gel to add in small dots for smaller bubbles. This took a lot of patience, and I highly recommend putting something under the fabric that will not get stuck to the glue. I glued on top of my cutting mat. I got a little trigger-happy with the glue, and consequently hae more spots than really I actually want. Then just wait for it all to dry.

Once my dye arrived, I mixed up colors from scratch. On one rail, I just used straight turquoise; on the other, turquoise mixed with lemon yellow; in the center it was turquoise mixed with royal blue. And perhaps cobalt? Yikes, this was just yesterday and already I can't remember. Anyway. I also mixed up the soda ash. I stuffed the wrap into the bottom of a big plastic tub a la LWI, and poured on the dyes. I then waited a few minutes and poured the soda ash on top. Once I had done this, I squished it around to make sure the dye penetrated the folds, but tried to keep it from entering the places I had applied resists. I tipped out the excess dye/soda ash mixture (tip out the short edge of the tub to keep the dyes from muddying). I covered with the box's lid and set in the yard for the duration of nap and a bit.

LWI

Then I rinsed out in the washing machine on cool just to get some of the dye out and then I untied. My hands got very blue. Then I washed on hot, but the glue just didn't seem to be coming out in spots. I set it to soak in a tub of cool water til morning, then hot wash again. Still glue. I took it in the yard and tried to pressure spray the glue off. No go. So far the best thing has been just to scratch the glue out with my fingernails. I hope it doesn't get too pilly. Then it will be up for another hot wash just to be sure.

closeup of resists

mostly finished

Two halves to my 6 yds of linen. Each were to become watery, but in different ways.

For one half, I used a shibori method called ori nui to create a resist in the fabric. Different combinations of the basic running stitch yielded different results in the end. The parallel line of stitching actually came out the faintest. The single line of stitching was the one I made meander most, and it came out clearly, but not particularly exciting. The most interesting pattern was the one where I folded the fabric and stitched a running stitch about 1/2 inch from the fold, then also stitched a running stitch on the fold.
I gathered it all up as tight as I could, dropped it in a very concentrated dyebath of cobalt blue, and let it dye for a few hours, then washed and washed and washed until the water ran clear. Pulled the stitches out, and voila!